My brother has a pro car-buyer guy, basically who acts as one’s broker, middleman, what have you, goes into the dealership, cuts through all the bullshit, and gets you a decent deal on the car you want to buy. Problem is, my brother lives nine states away from me, and last time around I tried getting this guy to work his magic long-distance but it didn’t take. (The guy backed off his original, 'Sure, I can do this over the phone" with a “The dealers in your state are lunatics.”) But I figure there must be reliable car-brokers near me. How would I go about hiring one? What am I looking for to make sure the guy is good at his job, is honest, etc. I dread needing to go into a dealership ever again and wasting a week of my life only to feel that I got screwed anyway.
Would a national “concierge” service like this work for you?
Do you have a credit union? They often have a car buying concierge service. Check with your bank.
No credit union, but you’ve given me a useful phrase to google. I’m an AAA member and they might be able to recommend a good place to start. Basically, I hate dealerships, and the entire art of haggling with these miserable scumbags, so much that I’d (almost) rather pay someone more than he can save me, just to deprive them of income.
Are you a Costco member? You could try their buying program.
I read the Jalopnik website (all about cars) regularly and learned that one of the writers there has a service for this sort of thing. I’ve never used it, but am considering doing so when I buy the next car.
Just curious - how much would such a service cost?
While car buying is far from my favorite activity, I’ve never found it so terribly unpleasant that I’d be willing to spend a huge amount to avoid it.
For things like AAA or Costco, it’s included with membership (almost all of them are just going through TrueCar). Otherwise it’s usually a flat fee of a couple hundred dollars, and possibly some percentage of any savings against MSRP.
Having bought a lot of cars in a lot of states I’ll say that urban vs suburban vs rural, which state, and whether the car market in general, and the market for what you want in particular, is hot or cold at the time has a tremendous effect on how easy or hard car-buying is. And easy / hard or “feelings” aside, a tremendous effect on whether you’ll walk out having objectively been screwed or having objectively given them a good screwing.
Not knowing anything about the OP’s personal particulars I can’t say much more than that.
As a general matter, and assuming you want only a used car, just go to Carmax or maybe Autonation, but I prefer Carmax. Good quality newish cars only, a national inventory of tens of thousands to pick from, and no fake negotiations, gamesmanship, or hidden last minute surprise fees. No fuss, no muss, just pay and go. Plus a high quality customer-oriented service department for any problems after the sale. They put traditional dealerships totally to shame from end to end.
You beat me to it. A $60 membership can save thousands on a car and then on tire replacements, battery replacements, etc.
I had a very good experience with Car Max. You can tell them what you want, they find it and transport it to you. When I bought a car from them and then needed to get a refund on the extended warranty, they did it cheerfully and smoothly.
You might want to research Consumer Reports through your public library for what they say about ‘pro car buyers’. I’d try a credit union, Costco, Car Max, etc before I’d risk some random self-promoting ‘car concierge’-you’d have a lot more recourse with them.
I thoroughly agree.
I know nothing about these guys other than they have a humorous YouTube channel but it looks like they may do what you want, though in looking at their website, they’re not exactly inexpensive. Read their tips & do it on your own & probably save at least another $500